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Depredation at Pemaquid 
in August, 1689 



By Victor Hugo t^altsits 




THE 

DEPREDATION AT PEMAQUID 
IN AUGUST, 1689 

AND EVENTS THAT LED UP TO IT 



VICTOR HUGO PALTSITS 

ti 



READ BEFORE TIIE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
JANUARY 18, 1900 



9 



PORTLAND, MAINE 
PRKSS OF LEFAVOR-TOWER COMrANY 

1«J06 






One Hundred Copies Reprinted 
for Private Distribution 



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(Persort) 

17 Ja'06 



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T was with no little pleasure and antic- 
ipation that we visited Pemaquid in 
August, 1898, for the purpose of study- 
ing that historic territory. No longer 
the haunt of the prowling savage, but 
the resting-place of the summer-boarder, it thrills, 
nevertheless, the historian, as he wanders o'er its 
confines, and brings back to life the dead past. Here 




" Lies many a relic, many a storied stone " 



and 



" Green is the sod where, centuries ago, 

The pavements echoed with the thronging feet 
Of busy crowds that hurried to and fro, 

And met and parted in the city street ; 
Here, where they lived, all holy thoughts revive, 

Of patient striving and of faith held fast ; 
Here, where they died, their buried records live ; 

Silent they speak from out the shadowy past." 

We purpose to present a particular account of but 
one chapter of its history, by dealing, specifically, 
with Pemaquid during the last months of the admin- 
istration of Sir Edmund Andros, and with the capit- 
ulation and destruction of Fort Charles under the 
new Boston government. 

On 12 March, 1664-5, Charles II gave to his brother 
James, Duke of York, the territory known under the 



name of Sagadahoc, and in which Pemaquid was 
included. But he utterly neglected his new acquisi- 
tion until the resumption of his claim in 1677. The 
time was one of great excitement ; King Philip's 
War, though on the wane, had not as yet been termi- 
nated. That war may properly be said to have 
ended with the treaty of Casco, 12 April, 1678. 1 
The territory included within the Duke of York's 
patent was named " County of Cornwall " — a desig- 
nation which seems to have been first applied on 1 
November, 1683. 2 In 1685, upon his accession to 
the throne as James II, it became a royal province. 
Pemaquid remained under the jurisdiction of New 
York until 1686. On 19 September of that year the 
king instructed Governor Dongan to deliver up Pem- 
aquid to Sir Edmund Andros, and the royal order 
was couched in the following terms : 

"Whereas We have thought fitt to Direct that Our Fort and Country 
of Pemaquid in regard of its distance from New York be for the future 
annexed to and Continued under the Government of Our Territory and 
Dominion of New England. Our Will and pleasure is That You forth- 
with deliver or Cause to be delivered Our said Fort and Country of 
Pemaquid, with the great Guns, amunition and Stores of Warr, 
togeather with all other Utensils and appertainances belonging to the 
Said Fort into the hands of Our Trusty and Well-beloved Sir Edmund 
Andros Knight Our Captaine Generall and Governour in Chief of Our 
Territory and Dominion of New England, or to the Governour or Com- 
mander in Chief there for the time being, or to Such person or persons 
as they shall Impower to receive the Same And for so doing this Shall 
be Your Warrant. 1 ' 3 



'The authorities for this war are ample. The contemporary sources are indicated 
by "Winsor in his " New England Indians " in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1895-0, pp. 345, if . ; 
and the best modern account is Bodge; "Soldiers in King Philip's War," Leomin- 
ster, Mass., 1896. 

2 "Maine Hist. Soc. Coll.," Vol. V, p. 4. 

•''From a contemporary copy preserved in " Mass. Archives," Vol. CXXVI, fol. 94. 



In the early summer of 1G77, Lieut. Anthony 
Brockholst, consonant with his instructions from 
Andros, erected Fort Charles with lumber and other 
necessary materials, which he brought with him for 
that purpose from New York. The fort, then erected, 
was " a wooden Redoutt with two gunns aloft, & an 
outworke with two Bastions in each of w ch two greatt 
guns, and one att y e Gate." l It was the second fort, 
or rather redoubt, built by the English at Pemaquid. 
On 14 March, 1686-7, Nicholas Manning was com- 
missioned captain of the garrison, and Francis John- 
son became his lieutenant. 2 Fones Andros succeeded 
to the command on 27 August, 3 but his authority was 
of short duration. On 30 November of that year, 
Lieut. James Weems received his commission for 
that post, and it is with him that we are particularly 
concerned. He was carried to Pemaquid in the ketch 
Speedwell, John Cooke, commander. 4 

Contemporary documents of reputable authority 
prove that at Pemaquid lawlessness had full sway. 
Official action endeavored to repress it by the 
appointment of a body of justices of the peace, but 
success was far from assured. The perfidiousness 
of neighboring Indians, too, was harassing to the 
commander, and there were not wanting those who 
recommended that if the Indians were severely dealt 
with, they would " cringe like dogs." 5 The affairs 
wearied along, thus, in uncertainty. 

» " N. Y. Coll. Docs.," Vol. Ill, p. 256. 

2 " Mass. Archives," Vol. CXXVI, fol. 262 and 2C3. 

3 "Mass. Archives," Vol. CXXVH, fol. 55. 

' " Mass. Archives," Vol. CXXVII, fol. 266 and 267. 

Joseph Fipou to Andros in " Mass. Archives," Vol. CXX1X, fol. 172 and 17:s. 



On 26 January, 1689, William Phips and Rev. Dr. 
Increase Mather petitioned their majesties, William 
and Mary, for the removal of Governor Andros. 1 He 
was deposed on 18 April, by the uprising of the pop- 
ulace, and the affairs were administered by a provis- 
ional government, until the arrival of Phips, in 1692, 
with the new charter. The revolution in New 
England had a disastrous effect upon the outlying 
garrisons. At Pemaquid partisanship ran high. 
Lieutenant Weems even had the audacity to affirm 
his partiality for Andros, in his correspondence with 
the new Boston government. Several of his men 
deserted, and they who remained were mutinous. 
The Boston government having withdrawn several 
companies, the balance objected to the risky exposure 
in which this placed them. But their greatest fear 
was lest they might lose their pay. On 14 June the 
Council ordered that promise be made to Weems and 
his men of the king's pay " from this time forward 
till farther Order." On 6 July a vote was passed 
that " Care be taken for the preservation of Pema- 
quid & their majesties People & Intrest there." On 
23 July, Weems informed the government that he 
had prevailed upon his men to remain at the garri- 
son, by assuring them of their pay and the reinforce- 
ments promised by the Council. The men on their 
part signified their willingness to remain, but not 
without, at the same time, ventilating their minds to 
the government, in a letter of the 24 July. 2 

111 Mass. Archives," Vol. CXXIX, fol. 217. 

2 " Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol. 48, 184,190,226, 227 and 228 ; " Documentary His- 
tory of Maine," Vol. V ( Baxter MSS.), pp. 180, 181, 486, 521 and 522. 

6 



The temper of Weems was in part justifiable ; for 
his garrison, weak and exposed, lay open to any 
momentary attack which might be made against it. 
It was only natural that he should be alarmed by the 
recurring news of nearby devastations. The disper- 
sion of the English settlements, cut off from speedy 
succor by the many rivers and hideous woods that 
lay between them, laid them open to attack. The 
horrors of Indian treachery at Cocheco ( now Dover, 
N. EL), in the early morning hours of 28 June, as 
well as the lesser, though oft-repeated onslaughts of 
the prowling savages in other quarters, were of a 
character to ruffle the most intrepid temper, and 
Weems was not alone in his demands for governmen- 
tal action and protection. The view of the religious 
class was that human power had been exhausted. 
"Let vs take y e more heart, to follow God w tb o r Prayers 
Night & day & never to give him rest till he hath made 
o r Jerusalem a Quiet habitation," was the quaint way in 
which one wrote to the government, on 5 July. 1 But 
the government, while failing to send the reinforce- 
ments requested for Pemaquid, was not wholly dila- 
tory in its duties. Even before the attack upon 
Cocheco, it was voted, on 14 June, that " some meet 
persons be appointed to discover whether the upris- 
ings of the Indians under the ' late Government ' of 
Sir Ed. Andros, are the result of English wrongs or 
Indian wrongs, and, in either case, a reparation to be 
made or satisfaction given." The commission as well 
was authorized to treat with the chief Indians, 

•John Pynchon, from Northfield, in "Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol 17s. 

7 



between Penacook ( now Concord, N. H.) and Pema- 
quid, and who had not participated in the late depre- 
dations, with a view to keeping them neutral. The 
English settlers were also prohibited from trading or 
bartering with the Indians, so long as hostilities con- 
tinued ; to do so, or to give arms or ammunition to 
any savage or neighboring French, was judged suffi- 
cient to brand the violator as an enemy of the 
English crown and nation, and to subject him to the 
prescribed punishment. 1 Baron de St. Castin and 
unruly Indians were to be warned that their insolen- 
ces and murder would be no longer tolerated. 
Should they not desist, peaceably, the force of arms 
would be employed. On 2 July, exactly one month 
before the woeful events at Pemaquid, the Council 
voted to engage the Mohawks for the destruction of 
the hostile eastern Indians, and promised these Indian 
allies, " for their Incouragement," eight pounds for 
every fighting man's head or scalp, which they would 
present as an evidence of success. 2 

The garrisons which it was considered important 
to aid and maintain were Fort Royal, Arrowsic, Sheep- 
scott, Pemaquid and Sagadahoc ; and of these Pema- 
quid was looked upon as the key of all the eastern 
parts 3 — the bulwark of English civilization and 
Protestant Christianity. 

Acknowledging the breadth, and often indefinite- 
ness, of the designation of Pemaquid in the early 

1 " Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol. 113. 

2 " Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol. 161. 

3 "Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol. 267. Cf. also Randolph to the Com. for 
Trade and Plantations, in " Edward Randolph," edited for the Prince Society, by 
Robert N. Toppan, Vol. IV ( 1899), p. 293. 

8 



patents, we shall, nevertheless, for the purposes of 
our narrative, confine our attention only to so much 
of the region as is situated at and about Pemaquid 
Falls and southeastward on both sides of Pemaquid 
River, still continuing in a southeasterly direction 
through Pemaquid Neck to Pemaquid Point. The 
land contiguous to the Falls was formerly called the 
Falls village. More recently it has taken the name 
Pemaquid ; while the old region of Jamestown, the 
more restricted and older Pemaquid, now goes by 
the name of Pemaquid Beach. Across the river to 
the northwest, where the best summer resorts of the 
immediate region are at present located, the name 
Pemaquid Harbor is applied. Just above Pemaquid 
Falls a stone bridge, about fifty feet in length, crosses 
the river. A sawmill over the falls is worked when 
the river is at its height. In the dry season the falls 
are little more than a current of water rumbling over 
the rocks ; and it is at about this point that the fresh 
water of the river unites with the tide-water of 
Johns Bay. In old Jamestown, on Pemaquid Neck, 
Fort Charles, already described, was built in honor 
of Charles II. It was situated on the highest land 
there, near the water's edge, and just above Fish 
Point. A narrow channel separates its immediate 
confines from the western vein or dyke of basalt, 
known in early history as the Barbacan ; but which 
no longer bears that designation, locally. The Bar- 
bacan — a name no doubt of French or Spanish 
origin, derived from its natural adaptedness for forti- 
fying purposes — played an important part in the 



early days. Some of the first settlements in the 
region were made there, and from it the Indians 
were wont to parley with the garrisons of old Pema- 
quid. To anyone unfamiliar with the region, the 
latter inference may seem to be an impossibility. We 
made the test, and could hear the laughter of boys at 
play near the fort site. The youth of the place, even 
now, communicate with one another in this manner 
across the channel. Such are the confines of Pema- 
quid, the pages of whose history — a history older 
than Plymouth — are red with the blood of English, 
French and Indians alike, who struggled for the 
mastery amidst deeds of daring and scenes of horror. 
We have already spoken of the exposed condition 
of Pemaquid, and the weak state of the garrison of 
Fort Charles after the withdrawal or desertion of all 
but thirty of the soldiers. 1 Only ten days before the 
depredation, on 23 July, Weems requested the gov- 
ernment to send to him with all speed about ten or 
twelve men "to be in y e Garrison for we are but 
weake at Present." 2 But the hoped for succor came 
not. At the same time the Canibas or Abenaki, rein- 
forced by other tribes, and in particular by the 
Maliseets of St. John River, were in council at Penta- 
gon ( Castine ), perfecting plans for the extirpation 
of their nearest, though to them unpleasant, neigh- 
bors — the English of Pemaquid. While there is no 
direct evidence that St. Castin influenced or urged 

1 Weems says in one place that two companies were withdrawn by the Boston gov- 
ernment ; but in another place he put the number at three companies. The former 
is the most likely number.— "Maine Hist. Soc. Coll." (Baxter MSS.), pp. 180, 181, 
521 and 622. 

" Mass. Archives," Vol. CVII, fol. 227. 

10 



the savages in their determination, circumstantial 
evidence is strong enough to charge him with being 
at least a participant in the scheme. He is not likely 
to have either forgotten or forgiven the unwarranted 
attack which Andros made upon him in the previous 
year. But for an open-handed and energetic factor 
in moulding the expedition, we must look to Father 
Pierre Thury, the Catholic missionary at Pentagoet, 
who accompanied the expedition throughout. He is 
described by Charlevoix as " a zealous laborer and a 
man of capacity." Thury came over to New France, 
and was ordained at Quebec, 21 December, 1677, but 
was not, as has been inferred by some, a Jesuit. 
After serving in the Acadian and St. Croix missions, 
he was invited to the Penobscot in 1687 by St. 
Castin. 

The plan of campaign was laid amidst appeals to 
heaven for success. All confessed, many received 
communion, and the Indians took care that their 
wives and children did likewise, in order, as they 
believed, " to raise purer hands to heaven while their 
fathers and husbands were combatting the heretics." 
This religious enthusiasm of his flock was to Thury 
an assurance of victory. The Perpetual Rosary was 
established so long as the expedition lasted, and 
interruption was not even permitted for meals. 

Preparations proceeded amidst the orgies natural 
to Indian campaigning. Between two and three 
hundred savages 1 led by Father Thury, and possibly 

'Charlevoix says there were only one hundred. Grace Higiman ( Hegeman ), 
afterwards captured by them, says there were between two and three hundred and 
no French. Another account, dated 14 August, 1C8U, says there were seventy canoes 

11 



escorted by a few Frenchmen, made for their canoes. 
With flashing paddles they held their course by the 
seacoast. Their hearts of iron burned with bloody 
hatred. They halted and embarked. Three canoes 
moved onward to reconnoitre, and were instructed to 
meet the main force at a place of rendezvous agreed 
upon. They may have landed first at Round Pond, 
but their final place of rendezvous was, it seems to us, 
at New Harbor, about two miles east of Fort Charles 
on Pemaquid Neck, where there were about twelve 
houses, then deserted. 

Their canoes secreted, they moved stealthily along 
by land, unnoticed and undisturbed. Early in the 
morning of 2 August, John Starkey started out from 
the fort for New Harbor, probably to inspect that 
deserted region, where his own home and interests 
lay. He, and perhaps two others with him, if Char- 
levoix can be credited, fell in with some of the Indian 
spies along the roadside. To secure his own liberty, 
Starkey apprised them of the weakness of the garri- 
son and settlement ; that the elder Thomas Gyles 
had gone, with fourteen of his men, to his farm at 
the Falls, about three miles off, and that the other 
men of the town were " scattered abroad about their 
occasions." Thus credibly informed the Indians 
resolved on an immediate attack. After prayer, they 
stripped for the fight. Distributing themselves into 
two main bands, the one proceeded to the Falls, 
while the other rushed furiously on the houses in the 

with four hundred men. Weems in a petition says there were a great number of 
Indians and French ; and again, that he was forced out of his possession by French 
and Indians. 

12 



settlement, alarmed those first which were farthest 
off, slaughtered all who attempted resistance, and 
bound and took captive such as laid down their 
arms. The attack was made at noonday when the 
garrison and inhabitants were off their guard, and 
while there was no scout abroad. 1 But few of the 
inhabitants succeeded in entering the fort as a place 
of refuge. Of the entire Gyles family, only one, 
Samuel, a boy nine years of age, got within the fort, 
and he happened to be near when the first alarm 
was given. 

Of course Weems made a show of defence by open- 
ing fire on the invaders, but could not prevent the 
savages from obtaining possession of several stone 
houses close by the fort, and situated on a street, the 
remains of which are to be seen to this day. A large 
rock, now happily called " Pemaquid Rock," lay 
unprotected just before the fort. Behind this the 
Indians also entrenched themselves, and from this 
point and the houses occupied by them, they kept up 
a terrible musketry fire all day and until late at 
night, when they summoned Weems to surrender. 2 
But he succeeded in holding out a little longer. 

Meanwhile the other branch of the attacking party 
was causing havoc about Pemaquid Falls, where they 
killed several in the fields, especially the elder 
Thomas Gyles, a man of sterling worth and integrity, 
and largely identified with the interests of the local- 
ity. It is to his son John that historians are indebted 

>"Doc. Hist, of Maine," Vol. V ( Baxter MSS.), pp. 120 and 121. 
2 Charlevoix. " New France " ( Shea's trans.), Vol. IV, p. 42. 

13 



for a particular account of this depredation, as pub- 
lished by him years afterward, in an account of his 
captivity. 1 

At early dawn of the following day the firing was 
renewed on both sides, and was for awhile incessant ; 
but Weems who had been severely wounded in the 
face by the blowing up of some gunpowder, narrowly 
escaping with his life, 2 and finding all of his men 
killed save seven, 3 determined to capitulate. 

The terms proposed by Weems were for life and 
liberty. We give them as preserved in the narrative 
of Capt. John Gyles, as follows : 

1. That they, the Indians should give him Mr. Pateshall's 
Sloop. [ Richard Pateshall was killed on the first day of the 
incursion, as he lay off the Barbacan.] 

2. That they should not molest him in carrying off the few 
People that had got into the Fort, and three captives that they 
had taken. 

3. That the English should carry off in their Hands what 
they could from the Fort. 

Weems and his little party sailed in Pateshall's 
sloop for Boston. Cotton Mather, however, says the 
Indians violated the stipulations by butchering and 
capturing "many of them." 4 But none of the 

'"Memoirs of Odd Adventures, Etc." Boston, 1736. An exhaustive edition of 
this work with many historical, genealogical and ethnological annotations, is now 
( 1905 ) under way by the writer, and will speedily be published. 

2 Petition of Weems to Earl of Bellomont in "Maine Hist. Soc. Coll.," Vol. V 

(Baxter MSS.;, p. 486. 

3 This is the number stated by Weems in his petition to the queen and privy 
council.— " Maine Hist. Soc. Coll.," Vol. V ( Baxter MSS.), pp. 180 and 181. On p. 1, 
in a communication written 14 August, 1689, it is stated that twenty men were 
killed. Charlevoix (Shea's trans.), Vol. IV, p. 42, says that Weems and fourteen 
men capitulated. It is likely that a few of the latter were residents who had 
escaped within the fort. 

4 " Magnalia" ( Hartford, 1853), Vol. II, p. 691. 

14 



English participants has left such a complaint, and 
Charlevoix, speaking for the French and Indians, 
says the savages " let them pass, without touching 
anything, merely telling them that if they were wise 
they would never come back again." l Moreover, 
Mather's account invites incredulity on the face of it, 
since there were not " many of them " in the party. 

On 4 August, the Indians set fire to the houses and 
fort, "which," says Gyles, "made a terrible Blast, 
and was a melancholly Sight to us poor Captives, 
who were sad Spectators." 

The captives, to the number of about fifty, were 
carried to Penobscot Fort. Some of them continued 
here during their captivity, but others were distribu- 
ted among the various tribes of the attacking party. 
Among the latter was a lad, John Gyles, of whom we 
have already spoken. He, having been captured by 
a Maliseet Indian of the St. John River, was carried 
to Fort Meductic ( now Lower Woodstock ) in the 
present province of New Brunswick, Canada. Having 
lived with these Indians about six years, enduring 
suffering and fatigue, he was sold to a Frenchman, 
from whom he received his release in June, 1698, 
and sailed in a sloop from the mouth of the St. John 
for Boston, where he arrived on the nineteenth of 
the month, after an absence of eight years ten months 
and seventeen days. His subsequent services to the 
Bay government, within the confines of Maine and 
Acadia, as Indian interpreter, captain of several gar- 
risons, and otherwise, during nearly a half a century, 

1 "Hist, of New France," ( Shea ), Vol. IV, pp. 42 and 43. 

15 



are a matter of conspicuous record. His " Memoirs," 
printed in 1736, are at once the most important and 
earliest English account of any consequence, relating 
to the province of New Brunswick. 



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